Keyword Analysis for Risk Assessment in Port Activities

The main objective of this short article is to acknowledge if there are keywords on scientific articles related to port activities. For this purpose, several articles that are literature reviews of quantitative or qualitative methods used for risk management and process safety and all their references (total of 751) have been analysed, resulting in about 3000 keywords, associated to citation belonging to the articles. None of these keywords refers specifically to port activities. From this data it is possible to infer that there is a great amount of words associated to risk assessment and methods used, and none of them is directly related to port activities

Developing fuzzy logic strength of evidence index and application in Bayesian networks for system risk management

Digitalization is becoming a trend in our modern society and systems. Meanwhile, risk analysis and management has rooted and been applied in various fields. Therefore, there is an increasing need to integrate risk analysis and management into the coming digital society. Risk has been represented digitally by the product of probability and consequence i.e. R = P x C traditionally. However, it has been increasingly discussed to include strength of evidence (SoE) in addition to the traditional consequence (C) and probability (P). Although much advance has been achieved along this direction, there still remains challenges, e.g. ambiguity in rating SoE and visual expression of risk diagrams. This paper focuses on addressing these issues and meanwhile aims to make the risk expression fully digital so that it is more efficient and flexible to be included in a system analysis and visualization. This is achieved firstly by reviewing state-of-the-art discussions on SoE assessment in risk management and identifying the remaining challenges. Then, the paper proposes an approach to address the challenges by forming a fuzzy logic SoE index based on fuzzy logic theory, which enables a transfer from linguistic variable to a digital one with the ambiguity avoided. After the SoE index is formed, it is applied into BNs as the node size index to demonstrate its practical application. Meanwhile, with the BNs forming the infrastructure to calculate and present consequences and probabilities, it showcases a new system risk management approach. All the variables in the system can be expressed in a risk diagram. This further enables an improved risk visualization, risk management and risk communication for system analysis, towards risk digitalization.Peer reviewe

Tools and Techniques in Risk Assessment in Public Risk Management Organisations

Risk assessment and the knowledge provided through this process is a crucial part of any decision-making process in the management of risks and uncertainties. Failure in assessment of risks can cause inadequacy in the entire process of risk management, which in turn can lead to failure in achieving organisational objectives as well as having significant damaging consequences on populations affected by the potential risks being assessed. The choice of tools and techniques in risk assessment can influence the degree and scope of decision-making and subsequently the risk response strategy. There are various available qualitative and quantitative tools and techniques that are deployed within the broad process of risk assessment. The sheer diversity of tools and techniques available to practitioners makes it difficult for organisations to consistently employ the most appropriate methods. This tools and techniques adaptation is rendered more difficult in public risk regulation organisations due to the sensitive and complex nature of their activities. This is particularly the case in areas relating to the environment, food, and human health and safety, when organisational goals are tied up with societal, political and individuals’ goals at national and international levels. Hence, recognising, analysing and evaluating different decision support tools and techniques employed in assessing risks in public risk management organisations was considered. This research is part of a mixed method study which aimed to examine the perception of risk assessment and the extent to which organisations practise risk assessment’ tools and techniques. The study adopted a semi-structured questionnaire with qualitative and quantitative data analysis to include a range of public risk regulation organisations from the UK, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The results indicated the public risk management organisations mainly use diverse tools and techniques in the risk assessment process. The primary hazard analysis; brainstorming; hazard analysis and critical control points were described as the most practiced risk identification techniques. Within qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, the participants named the expert judgement, risk probability and impact assessment, sensitivity analysis and data gathering and representation as the most practised techniques

Uncertainty-based decision-making in fire safety: Analyzing the alternatives

Large accidents throughout the 20th century marked the development of safety fields in engineering, devoted to better identify hazards, understand risks and properly manage them. As these fields evolved rather quickly and moved from a compliance to a risk-based approach, a significant delay in this transition was experienced in fire safety engineering (FSE). Devastating fires well into the 21st century and the restrictive nature of prescriptive codes signaled the need to transition towards a performance-based one. A performance-based approach provides flexibility and capitalizes on learning from accidental events and engineering disciplines such as process safety and FSE. This work provides an overview of the main alternatives to account for uncertainty in safety studies within the context of FSE, including traditional probabilistic analyses and emerging approaches such as strength of knowledge. A simple example is used to illustrate the impact of the uncertainty analysis on the results of a simple fire safety assessment. A structured evaluation is performed on each alternative to assess its ease of implementation and communication. The outcome is a compendium of advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives that constitute a toolbox for fire safety engineers to configure and use within their fire risk assessments. Process safety engineers are expected to gain an understanding of the similar and important challenges of FSE, being it directly relevant for process risk management and fire risk management in administrative buildings

Gestão de risco na patologia clínica do Hospital Senhora da Oliveira, E.P.E.

Dissertação de mestrado em Gestão de Unidades de SaúdeO presente trabalho descreve a realização de uma análise de risco na Patologia Clínica do Hospital Senhora de Oliveira Guimarães E.P.E. A gestão do risco clínico constituí um factor de sucesso em qualquer organização de saúde e permite ao doente receber o tratamento apropriado num ambiente seguro. O risco está inerente em tudo o que a organização faz, no entanto, o objectivo de estabelecer uma gestão do risco clínico é o de instituir actividade operacional coordenada, focalizada e sistematizada. O objetivo geral e primordial do presente projeto passou pela análise de risco de um serviço que tem como processo a realização de análises clínicas, para assim poder implementar ações de melhoria e desempenho. A metodologia utilizada através de investigação - ação permitiu a procura de soluções para os riscos encontrados tendo em vista um ciclo de melhoria contínua. Procedeu-se à recolha de dados através da criação de um grupo de foco e à observação sistemática do funcionamento global e dos processos em particular. Como apoio ao estudo foi utilizado o software Genie, no qual permitiu desenvolver diversas redes Bayesianas, que possibilitaram relacionar as probabilidades de ocorrência com o impacto, podendo assim analisar os diversos riscos, quais os seus impactos, como interferem em outros riscos e quais os mais graves. Posteriormente, apresentaram-se as propostas de melhoria (ações de mitigação), para assim conseguir controlar e diminuir alguns riscos identificados. Estas propostas de melhoria surgiram da análise de dois riscos ao acaso e foram enunciadas como por exemplo a realização de formações especificas para o risco em questão, utilização de mais postos de controlo, realização de auditorias, verificação das condições contratuais com as casas comercial e criação de manuais rápidos de resolução de eventos/avarias.This paper describes the performance of a risk analysis in the Clinical Pathology of the Hospital Senhora de Oliveira Guimarães E.P.E. Clinical risk management is a factor of success in any health organization and allows the patient to receive appropriate treatment in a safe environment. Risk is inherent in everything the organization does, however, the objective of establishing clinical risk management is to establish coordinated, focused and systematized operational activity. The general and primary objective of the present project was the risk analysis of a service whose process is to carry out clinical analyzes, in order to be able to implement improvement and performance actions. The methodology used through research - action enabled the search for solutions to the risks encountered in view of a cycle of continuous improvement. Data collection was carried out through the creation of a focus group and systematic observation of the overall functioning and of the processes in particular. As support for the study, the Genie software was used, which allowed the development of several Bayesian networks, which made it possible to relate the probabilities of occurrence with the impact, thus being able to analyze the various risks, which are their impacts, how they interfere with other risks and which are the most serious. Subsequently, proposals for improvement (mitigation actions) were presented, in order to be able to control and reduce some identified risks. These improvement proposals arose from the analysis of two risks at random and were stated, for example, the realization of specific training for the risk in question, the use of more checkpoints, the performance of audits, verification of contractual conditions with the commercial houses and creation of quick event / fault resolution manuals

Uncertainty handling in fault tree based risk assessment: State of the art and future perspectives

YesRisk assessment methods have been widely used in various industries, and they play a significant role in improving the safety performance of systems. However, the outcomes of risk assessment approaches are subject to uncertainty and ambiguity due to the complexity and variability of system behaviour, scarcity of quantitative data about different system parameters, and human involvement in the analysis, operation, and decision-making processes. The implications for improving system safety are slowly being recognised; however, research on uncertainty handling during both qualitative and quantitative risk assessment procedures is a growing field. This paper presents a review of the state of the art in this field, focusing on uncertainty handling in fault tree analysis (FTA) based risk assessment. Theoretical contributions, aleatory uncertainty, epistemic uncertainty, and integration of both epistemic and aleatory uncertainty handling in the scientific and technical literature are carefully reviewed. The emphasis is on highlighting how assessors can handle uncertainty based on the available evidence as an input to FTA

Risk analysis in maritime transportation : principles, frameworks and evaluation

Risk analyses are widely used tools for supporting decision making. Nonetheless, many criticisms have been raised against the discipline of risk analysis, e.g. technical analyses having a narrow focus, poorly examined claims of the ability of accurately measuring risk and lack of standards for quality assurance and risk analysis evaluation. In response to these criticisms, calls have been made for increased focus on these and other foundational issues, both in the general risk analysis discipline and in the various application areas. This thesis answers these calls for research addressing the underlying concepts and principles of risk analyses, which are approached through applications focusing on the accidental risk of maritime transportation. Focusing first on a set of foundational issues underlying waterway risk analyses, it is established that many different definitions, perspectives and scientific approaches co-exist in the application area. Through two case studies of reliability of maritime risk models, previous research claiming that risk models provide unreliable decision support, are confirmed for some maritime applications, thus confirming the need for focusing on risk related principles. Subsequently, a set of principles is presented, addressing concepts and terminology, risk and prediction, risk model use and the consideration of uncertainty and bias. A framework is introduced to communicate the scientific principles adhered to in a specific risk analysis. Following this, the principles are translated in two risk analysis frameworks: one for policy-oriented and one for operational risk analysis; the first leading to a quantitative and the second to a qualitative risk characterization. In both, risk is understood as a concept referring to the possible but uncertain occurrence of a situation where something of human value is at stake. Risk models are used as putting forward an argument based on available evidence, as a tool for communication between stakeholders and as a platform for thinking. Uncertainties and value-laden biases are assessed, and some tools for communicating these are introduced. Both frameworks are illustrated by extensive case studies. The first concerns accidental risk of oil spills from tanker collisions in the Gulf of Finland. The second focuses on a risk-informed ship-ship collision alert system. A final issue addressed in the thesis concerns the evaluation of a risk analysis, i.e. principles and criteria for establishing credibility. An integrated framework for this is developed, addressing model use, model plausibility, value-related validity and process-related validity. Specific evaluation criteria are proposed and a selection of these is applied in the presented case studies

The Use of Qualitative Risk Analysis Methods to Facilitate Decision Making in the Management of Health and Welfare in Wildlife

This thesis is composed of a series of papers, all of which have been published in peer reviewed publications. The papers use the recognised process of qualitative risk assessment in a range of scenarios in the field of wildlife health and welfare in both in situ and ex situ environments. Chapter 1 discusses the challenges faced regarding availability of empirical data in field of wildlife and zoological health and welfare and justifies the exploration of techniques to assist with decision making. The development of risk analysis and its integration with risk management and risk communication to become risk assessment is described before being put into the specific context of wildlife and zoological disease. Chapters 2 and 3 consider two scenarios where disease risk assessment is well established as a tool, importation across national borders and in conservation interventions. Chapter 2 develops the standard import risk assessment approach to include multiple species and multiple diseases. Chapter 3 reviews developments made over the last 25 years and proposes best practice approaches to implement. Chapter 4 describes how the risk assessments formulated as described in Chapter 3 are used for licensing purposes emphasising the importance of risk management and communication. This theme is continued in Chapter 6 where the integration of risk assessment and evidence based decision making is considered in the broad context of a strategic approach to wildlife health bringing together the outcomes and processes described in Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5. The papers in Chapters 2,5 and 8 are focused on how risk analysis aids in development of disease control approaches and policy. The evidence base is composed primarily of peer-reviewed literature supported by expert review of the finalised assessment. Chapter 7 uses risk assessment in an applied scenario, taking the recognised process and modifying it to structure an active disease investigation demonstrating the versatility of the technique. Chapter 9 takes this a step further by again adapting the methodology which, has historically been used primarily for infectious diseases, to consider reproduction and assess risks to welfare rather than purely health. The paper in Chapter 9 builds on the methodology by combining existing peer-reviewed literature with data collected specifically for the purpose of feeding into the assessment and utilising a stakeholder and expert opinion elicitation workshop to obtain data too. These process are proposed and described in Chapter 3. The final chapter critically reviews risk assessment, highlighting three key areas of potential weakness and proposing approaches to address these criticisms. The value of the approach in wildlife and zoological health and welfare as demonstrated by this series of papers is describe